SABIC reports 25% fall in Q2 net profits

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) posted on Sunday a net profit of USD 980 million for Q2 2017, a fall of 25% from the same period last year.

Several factors led to the disappointing performance, officials said, including a USD 129-million loss at the company’s Hadeed iron and steel unit and an asset write-down at the Ibn Rushd affiliate, as well as a 4% decline in the prices of fertiliser and petrochemical products since Q1.

SABIC nevertheless registered a 14% year-on-year growth of its profits in the first six months of the year, at USD 2.38 billion in the past half-year.

“The Kingdom is undergoing a very important transformation process, and we are looking forward to positive results,” said CEO Yousef Al Benyan. “If we compare the results achieved so far in 2017 with the results of the same period last year, we will notice a 14% increase in profits, which means that we are moving in the right direction.”

SABIC is the largest publicly-held company in Saudi Arabia and aims to be the world’s third-biggest producer of petrochemicals. The company is pursuing its first major project with ExxonMobil to build a petrochemicals complex in Texas, USA. The project proposes to include an ethane steam cracker which is expected to produce 1.8 million tpy of ethylene.